Everyone Needs the One
The peace of god is available to us all through Jesus
Aaron Swensen
Mar 19, 2017 36m
Jesus said, "I am the Light." No matter how we may have sinned the peace of God is available to us. To live without Christ is to be in spiritual darkness. Come into the light. Pastor Swensen shows us how. Video recorded at Chandler, Arizona.
TranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Pastor Aaron: 00:49 Well good morning, how are we doing?
Pastor Aaron: 00:55 Well I do see some familiar faces but for many of you I have no clue who you are and you probably have no clue who I am. My name is Aaron Swensen I'm the campus pastor at our Scottsdale campus and today I get to share with you week two of our series Everyone and I'm pretty pumped about it. And so hopefully you've got your bibles, open your bibles to John Chapter 8. I feel like your're multi-taskers, Cornerstone's is good at that. So while you're doing that you can listen. Man, we launched our campus two weeks ago and I met this guy in the back of our auditorium and he said I've lived in the neighborhood for 54 years and I've never seen in 54 years that kind of activity at this campus that I've seen in the last couple of weeks. And we were pretty pumped about that. And if that's any indication of what we've had over the last couple of weeks we're about to blow the roof off of this joint so it's going to be legit.
Pastor Aaron: 01:44 We say this to you because we're family and we're all in it together. And whether you've ever been to Scottsdale or not, man, you're still a part of it and we're us, this is us. Not the TV show but actually this is us and this is us in San Tan, Larry we're so thrilled you're joining us 5 p.m. the venue Scottsdale, man, we're pumped that you guys are joining us this morning in our series.
Pastor Aaron: 02:05 So is anybody afraid of the darkness, by show of hands, anybody? Three of us, this is not going to work if it's only three of us. I don't know about you. I was afraid of the dark as a kid. Raise your hand, you afraid of the dark as a kid? Oh there we go. Don't leave me up here by myself. That's great. So I was afraid of the dark as a kid, man. And most kids are, most. As an adult honest to goodness I'm kind of afraid of the dark a little bit. In our house we've got four kids and they range from 10 to about 2 years old and without fail every night, "Turn the hall light on dad just a little bit, crack the bathroom door, turn the light on," all the time. And the reason they do that is because isn't it interesting that a little bit of light in a dark room goes a long way. Wouldn't you agree? But man they're afraid of the dark. I'm even sometimes afraid of the dark too. I remember as a kid my Mom closed the closet door, right? Did anybody have that thing? Why? Because the bogeyman lurks in the closet door and in the darkness weird things happen. Even that thing where you don't want to... there's an invisible barrier on your bed. Right? And if that hand creeps over and hangs or your foot hangs what are you afraid of? Man, you're getting sucked under the bed. Right? As a boy I'd play outside. What!? People like in the 80s and 90s played outside. I know it's crazy but I played outside and I'd hang out at a friend's house down the road. And it was getting dark and my mom would call or my dad would call on a landline phone. I know it's crazy. And they would call and say it's time for Aaron to come home. And so I would walk down the driveway, and my house is about 10 houses down and I start kind of walking and then as I get past the first light I start walking a little bit faster. And then I start looking over my shoulder and just all out sprint home because I was afraid that the little Chucky doll was chasing me or Jason or the Scream mask you know like Freddy Krueger because the darkness is freaky.
Pastor Aaron: 04:00 Wouldn't you agree? Yes. The darkness is freaky. And the reality is, is that a little bit of light in a dark space goes a long way and it changes everything. You and I live in a pretty dark world. You, all you've got to do is open your phone and look on your social media feed, all you've got to do is turn the news on, read a headline if you still do that -- people still read headlines. You watch TV and you'll see that, man, we live in a dark place and the reality is is that a little bit of light in a dark place goes a long way.
Pastor Aaron: 04:37 Today we are studying the story of Jesus in John Chapter 8 where he says a profound statement. He, like, says a statement, drops the mike and walks away. He says, "I am the light of the world and anyone who follows after me will no longer walk in darkness but will have the light of life." Jesus is essentially saying that in a dark, dark space, in a dark moment I'm the light that guides the way. And if you follow after me, the one that changes everything, it will change everything for you. And it just so happens that you now, if you believe in the light, you will receive the light and you will now have the light to shine in a dark, dark, dark world. The truth that we all need to embrace today is that everyone needs the one that is the light of the world. Everyone that you know that's got a heart beat in their chest and breath in their lungs. Every person that you look eyeball to eyeball with every day whether at Starbucks or at Golden Corral or anywhere else, they all if they've never experienced Jesus, they need the light of life in their hearts because when they meet Christ he fills every vacancy, answers every question and changes everything to their life. So when Jesus says, "I'm the light of the world," it kind of pumps the brakes on the entire story when you know the story. It gives you so much more meaning, so much more fulfillment in the story.
Pastor Aaron: 06:12 So what I want us to do is walk through John Chapter 8 beginning in verse 2 and the first thing, if you like to take notes... it's good for you to take notes because God's watching you so you should write this down. The first thing is is that the law reveals our guilt, the law reveals our guilt. That will make sense once we read the scriptures in verse 2 of John Chapter 8 Are you ready? OK I heard Scottsdale over that, and you're in the room so let's do this again. Are we ready? There we go. Good job. Too early in the morning.
Pastor Aaron: 06:44 He came to them (He is Jesus) again in the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them, he was teaching. Verse 3 describes that the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher this woman has been caught in adultery." So these scribes and these Pharisees and these religious leaders were creeping in on this lady and caught her having an affair with this man and they take it upon themselves to bust into the room and kidnap her off of that moment, not giving her time to fix up herself, not giving her time to cover up and drag her into church and then throw her not in the lobby but in the worship center in the middle of when Jesus is teaching and says to Jesus, "Look who we found, look what happened. It's obvious what she was doing, isn't she guilty? What do you want to do about it? The law tells us that she's guilty. What do you want to do?" Talk about one of the darkest moments of her life. Talk about shame, talk about guilt, talk about vulnerability to the Nth Degree. Verse 5 goes on to say that now in the law, circle that phrase, in the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do you say?
Pastor Aaron: 08:13 So adultery was a pretty big deal in their world and they said listen this isn't going to cut it, that she's not going to get off scott free. Our law says she's guilty, by the way it takes two to tango if you didn't know that so where's the dude in the story? We have no idea. So this woman is guilty. What are you want to do with her Jesus? Let stone her. Not recreationally but physically, depends on where you're from what that means right? Like if you're in Colorado. Just kidding. So look at verse 6. Why did they say this to him? Many scholars believe that these Scribes and Pharisees contrived this moment. They went out and found a dude and said hey we need you to do this. They didn't tell the girl and so all this stuff starts happening. They're conniving and planning and doing all these things to catch Jesus. What was he doing? Look at verse 6: This they said to him to what. To test him that they might have some charge to bring against Jesus. They wanted to get Jesus in a mess. What are you going to do Jesus, what are you going to do with this lady? You really had two options right. One, he agrees let's kill her. The problem with that is that he'd lose all of his street cred with his mission to seek and to save the lost, to heal the sick, to mend broken hearts, to save sinners from their sin. Right? So if he says let's do this, then all of the message of compassion to reach the lost and broken people the world, all those broken people would go, "I ain't following, ain't happening."
Pastor Aaron: 09:50 The other option would be she walks scott free. Well on that side of the coin you also have a problem because then this guy is theologically waffley. He messes up. What does he believe, does he not follow Moses, does he not follow the Ten Commandments? Obviously there's a problem. He says he's a prophet but obviously he doesn't follow the the word of God so he's weak in what he is teaching. There's no way this guy could do this and in a moment they just back him into a corner and let me just say if you're here today and you're struggling with Jesus. Like he ain't afraid to be backed into a corner, OK? You can ask him questions, you can even push him a little bit. And that's what these religious leaders did. But the moment you begin to put Jesus into a corner he begins to expose your heart and he's not doing that because he's mad at you, he's doing that because he wants to save you.
Pastor Aaron: 10:38 And I want you to look at your neighbor and say we're guilty. Look at him and say, "You're guilty," say it, come on. Look at the person on the other side who you love more because you didn't say that first to them and tell them you're not as guilty as the other person. See the reality is is we're all guilty and whether you sit in the seat of the religious leaders contriving a plan to put Jesus in a corner or sit in the seat of this woman messed up in her sin or anything in between, we're guilty. Now we don't like to say that, I mean we don't like to say that like that's not a popular message to a church. Nobody's getting a book deal for calling people sinners and calling people guilty. But the reality is is we all are, that's what we try to fix all the wrong that we do in our lives. That's why we try to get the bigger job, the bigger house, the big money because we feel like that'll fix that vacancy in our heart and if I have more mone I can, I can buy my way out of this. If I've got a new woman it'll get my way out of that vacancy in my heart that I'm trying to fill with woman after woman after woman, man after man after man after man, and no woman or no man or no job or no new home or no new truck or no new car will ever fix the problem in your life. Because the problem is that you're guilty and that stuff doesn't fix your guilt and it doesn't fix my guilt. We have a hard time seeing that though don't we?
Pastor Aaron: 11:56 So in order for us to understand that we're all on a level playing field whether you believe today or not this kind of levels the playing field for all of us and I need you to participate at all of our locations, if you don't raise your hands. This will be a problem, so we all got to work together. Alight, are you with me?
Pastor Aaron: 12:11 All right here we go. So here's what we're going to do. How many of you have ever... You didn't mean to do it but you just let slip just a little, little, little white lie -- like you told a half truth? Yeah right. Okay. Look around. All right everybody look around. Look around and all the campuses look around. Keep them up. For those of you that aren't raising your hands, you're a liar. I've never seen a room full of so many liars in my life. Yeah right. You can put him down. How many of you would say, honest moment in church, we're all on a level playing field here. You went to Zoyo or your favorite frozen yogurt place and you saw that sample bowl and you took 35 little sample cups and took a little more than you should have? Anybody been there? Okay a few of us. How many of you have a Cornerstone pen in your car, in your purse ladies. You're a thief. We want you to take those but I'm just playing.
Pastor Aaron: 13:06 Now this next one nobody wants to answer but you gotta go laser fast so nobody sees you. It's the laser hand race. I mean that's what it is all right? Maybe you lingered a little longer than you should have looking at somebody that's not your spouse. Laser hands everywhere. What are you saying Aaron? Because what I hear you saying is that I'm a liar and a thief. And if I even look at a woman lustfully that I've committed adultery in my heart. You're saying I'm an adulterer? Yes welcome to Cornerstone. We're glad that you're here. Well why am I saying this? Listen until we see ourselves as sinners we'll never see our need for a savior. We are sinners in desperate need of saving and the reality is is we know the one who fixes the guilt and we know the one who fixes the shame and we know the one who can take away the sin of the world and deposit the light of life inside of every single one of us. He's the light of the world that changes everything. And I need to hear that, you need to hear that. Listen, listen, listen your family needs to hear this. Your neighbors need to hear this. Everybody in our sphere of influence ought to be tripping over the message that you need the light of Christ in your life. Charles Spurgeon said once that the people in our sphere of influence, the people in our cities, it ought to be impossible for them to die and spend eternity separated from God because of our efforts and our groaning and our urging to reach them so that they might be saved. This is the point is that everyone in this world is guilty and they are sinners, and you and me included, in need of a savior.
Pastor Aaron: 15:03 But there is an unbelievable moment in transition of this story. The guilt doesn't stop there. The guilt can be remedied. The sin can be fixed. There is great hope found in this Jesus. Second thought is that the the law might reveal our guilt but the love reveals God's grace, the love reveals God's grace. Do you know what grace is? Grace is the you get what you don't deserve. It's what we say in Bible world, the unmerited favor, unmerited mean you don't deserve it but yet you get it. It's like Christmas, gifts are grace. You don't deserve it but you get it.
Pastor Aaron: 15:47 Reminds me of a story of my first daughter Sydney. She's 10 years old now. This was some years ago and she had this moment where we didn't know what was going on behind the scenes but after we found out crazy things started to happen. What are you talking about? Well we noticed insanely fast in our pantry that our peanut butter was disappearing at epic proportions. We buy the Skippy natural, gigantic one right? Spoonfuls. It's more like, I mean, I mean, just gone. And we started having to buy this over and over and over again right? Well my wife and I were talking, "What in the world is going on with the peanut butter?" And we don't know what's happening. Well a couple of weeks go by, truth be told. And for some reason we moved a couple of things in our pantry and behind the pantry in these areas -- boxes, cereal, rice. I mean who does bags of rice anymore? We use Minute Rice. But behind all that stuff there were a trail of used spoon, spoon, spoon, spoon, spoons. Seventeen million of them. I mean just good night Gus. It was everywhere. So then we start asking around and lo and behold it's my oldest, Sidney. And we said, "What is all this?"
Pastor Aaron: 17:13 "Well in the middle of the night I get hungry daddy and I just..." I'm malnourishing my kid! I'm starting to cry, she's crying, I'm crying. What's going on? We need to fix this and she's feeling now guilty because we caught her in the act of stealing. She was so overwhelmed with oh my gosh my mommy and daddy aren't going to love me anymore because I stole all the peanut butter. And I looked at her and I said, "No, no, no, no, no, your daddy's got this. I can just go buy more peanut butter."
Pastor Aaron: 17:39 Did she deserved to be... we didn't punish the kid because of that. No, we just sent her on her way and let her go play with her my little pony toys in her bedroom because we were the guilty party of malnourishing our children. But in that moment she didn't deserve the, "You should have, you should have. Why did you, why didn't you come to get me...". No, no, no, I just said, "Listen baby daddy will take care of it." And the reality is is that I exhibited grace to her. Which is what our Heavenly Father does to us is he gives us grace. He gives us the moment of it's going to be OK. Your daddy's got this. He's got it under control. Your sin doesn't overwhelm him. Your guilt doesn't overwhelm him. It doesn't matter how crazy it is. It doesn't surprise him and he accepts you at that moment.
Pastor Aaron: 18:23 So what do you think Jesus is going to do to this lady? There she is in all of her nakedness and all of her vulnerability. Religious leaders going, "Throw it at her!" And he's going... What is he going to do, what's he going to do? Look at the next verse, verse seven. Look at what Jesus does. The Bible says in verse 6 they set this as a test and that they might have some charge against him, and then Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. Every dude in their right mind would bow up right? Like I'm going to take care of this, hog tie 'em and take 'em out back and beat the snot out of 'em because they didn't... They shouldn't have done this to this lady. Jesus doesn't act like you and like me, thank God. He bends down and he stoops down in a humble position and he does something. Well what in the world does he do? He wrote with his finger. Jesus, this is not a time to outline your latest book deal. This is not a time to journal. This is a time to do something. What are you doing? It's amazing what he does. Many scholars believe that he started calling out the sins of those men that brought this woman to him: Frank, you've got a real issue with your anger. Bill, you like to look at other women that aren't your wife. Dylan, you skim off the top at your job and take things that aren't yours. That's insane. The offender, he's calling them out. And why do we believe that he did that? Well number one later manuscripts tell us that he did, that number two comes down to words, the Greek word for write or wrote is two words it's graphin which just means to write and then katagrafin which is this word here. It means to write down the offense against someone. The third reason why we think he did it is because it would be awesome if he did that. Writingiding down the offences of these people. And in that moment he didn't look down at her ... and it was she guilty? Question, was she guilty? Yes she was guilty. Did she sin. Yes she sinned. But he didn't even go to that yet. He was exposing this other groups hearts.
Pastor Aaron: 20:35 So verse seven comes. And as they continued to ask him... so they just kept pressing, pressing and pressing, he stood up against them. And said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." All right boys. If you're perfect pick up a rock and start throwing, if you're perfect pick up a rock and start throwing. Look at verse 8. The reality is is nobody could pick up a rock, right? They just looked in the dirt and saw what Jesus wrote and it was like, "I ain't throwin', there ain't no way that's happenin'." In verse eight and more, then once more he bent down to write on the ground, yet again writing more. But when they had heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones. Who finds that fascinating? The older ones right? Why did they do that? They've lived longer, they'd sinned more. There's no reason that they're going to stick around and go, "I'm not dumb, I'm leaving, I'm leaving. If he's writing down what everybody's done nobody needs to know my dirty laundry, who's with me on that one?" Right? That's where these people are. The young guys, the young bucks are like I'm sticking around. You're a moron for sticking around. So he moves on.
Pastor Aaron: 21:46 But when they heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones and as Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Can you imagine that moment? All of those accusers off running away. One by one and there she is in the darkness of her darkest moment feeling the guilt, feeling the shame, feeling insecure, feeling completely vulnerable before this man who was Jesus by herself. This would have been the moment where all of a sudden he just goes, "All right. Now here's this..." And he starts pointing fingers. But notice that Jesus' grace meets her at her guilt. The grace of God meets you and me at the deepest spot of our guilt and changes us. Look at what he says to her next. This is powerful, he says in verse 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?" Talk about the love of the Father coming to her. In two questions. Where are they at Ma'am? Where are they at? Where are the accusers, where are the ones that are saying, 'You were this. Now you will always be this.' Where are they at?" To which she would say they are not here.
Pastor Aaron: 23:08 And some of us today need to hear the same message from the light of the world Jesus Christ that no matter what you have done, no matter what sin you have committed, some of us feel like I can't come in a church. You've got friends that we know that haven't been in church in a long time or never been in church and they're like, "Listen, if I come to your church the ceiling will fall in on me before I even walk in the building. It's going to be massive destruction." And the reality is is that God is not scared by what we have done in our lives. God is not looking at you and going, "Ah, man." No, God is looking at you and saying, "Oh man, would you come on." And the reality is is you could run like the religious leaders did when met with the grace of God or you can stand there in his presence and absorb that grace and realize that when you meet Christ, yes you are a sinner, but you're in need of a savior and you're standing before him today and you were once dead but now you can be found alive. You were once a slave to sin but now you're free in Christ. You were once living in condemnation but now you are set free by the sinless son of God. You are now blessed. You have been changed. You are now... You have been ransomed and you have been set free by the power of the resurrected Christ. And when that comes into you you absorb that grace and it changes everything for you.
Pastor Aaron: 24:25 Do you know what the antidote to our guilt is? God's grace and the antidote for our guilt, listen, the grossest sin you could ever commit. God's grace overshadows it. And I don't know about you but I know people who need this.
Pastor Aaron: 24:45 I've been talking with a distant cousin of mine over Facebook and yesterday we start talking and he starts telling me all these things that have happened in his life. He was mad at me at first and then we start turning the conversation and I'm like, "Dude, I only know one way to tell you this. I couldn't make it through my life if it wasn't for my relationship with Jesus Christ. He's literally changed everything for me, for my family. At this point for my two daughters who have received Jesus. Listen, He's what you need. He's every answer, he's every question, every answer, every solution. Everything that you could ever be feeling in this moment. He is the release to your tension. You need a relationship with Christ. You need to meet the light of the world that shines so bright that it overshadows all of your guilt.
Pastor Aaron: 25:40 Do you know people that need this? Reality is is that every person we come into contact with if they haven't received it they need it. What does the law do? It reveals our guilt. What does the light do though? It reveals the overwhelming grace of God. Or the love reveals the overwhelming grace of God. And then finally the light reveals our hope. I've already told you that the light in a dark room, in a dark space changes everything.
Pastor Aaron: 26:16 Yesterday Joy was working up at her school, she works at Legacy North Chandler and she was doing some stuff getting lesson plans ready for the week and all this stuff and she was making copies in the workroom. And then all of a sudden the lights start to flicker. And then all of a sudden the lights just go out and she's navigating through the walls trying to figure out where she's going. And it's a new building so she doesn't know all the nooks and crannies and she's telling me, "Dude and I'm telling you right now. I was nervous because I didn't know if some boogeyman was lurking around the corner and kind of just come out and scare me and come into the back out of the bathroom. I didn't know what was going to happen." And it wasn't until she got to her room where the light was on that she went, "Ahhhh." That's a light does, it brings hope. Light brings hope to the darkest of moments when Jesus says in verse 12 that I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Jesus is making an unbelievable claim in an unbelievable moment. The reality is, the context of the moment is the Feast of Tabernacles. Well, what is that? Well you can go look it up on your own time, we don't have time to talk about it.
Pastor Aaron: 27:23 But the Feast of the Tabernacles is a moment of celebration for the Hebrew people where they are celebrating that pillar of fire that guided the nation of Israel through the wilderness for 40 years. And so what they would do in the temple is they had these gigantic light posts like we have in our day, little light posts walking down the road, they had these lights and then the tops would be filled with oil like a basin and then the wick of the candle was the priests, the pastors, it was their old robes and they would light those robes and it would light up the entire city and they would celebrate the provision of God, that God lighted the way in the wilderness and pointed the people where he wanted them to go for the whole time. That's what God did and so they were celebrating that in the Feast of the Tabernacles, and when Jesus was standing in the temple in John Chapter 8 in verse 12 he said, "You thought that light was great. Let me tell you about the true light, the light of the world and you're looking at him right now. I am the one who will provide the way, I am the one who will point the way. I'm the one who will guide you. I'm the one who will protect you. I am the one who will show you every which way that you want to go. This is a personal thing. This isn't just the light, the cloud. This is a personal relationship with me. I am the light of your world and if you want to follow me guess what happens? You no longer walk in darkness but you will have the light of life inside of you."
Pastor Aaron: 28:44 The Feast of the Tabernacles in Israel what would happen is Jerusalem is a dark city, like physically at nighttime there were no street lights so the light would be golden over all the city at night shining so that everyone could see a little bit of light in a dark space goes a long way. That's what happens when you shine your light, you shine your light, and you shine your light if you've received the light of Christ and you shine that bright wherever you go. What happens is it's unmistakable that the light of life is inside of you, that you now have met the one that changes everything and as you shine that light so bright you give God an opportunity to use you to introduce people to the real light, Jesus Christ. Last week Pastor Linn challenged us all with the Cornerstone window decal.
Pastor Aaron: 29:36 We all remember that? No? All right we'll move on. So if you didn't get one there are some as you leave today here the Chandler campus and I'm sure the other spaces you got the info booth and get one. But he said, "Hey listen, let's just do that so that people can be exposed to even Cornerstone because we know that Cornerstone we preach Jesus and so even if they walk in the door they have an opportunity to experience Jesus, set a whole new level. And hopefully you've done that. But we want you to take it a step further. When you're in line at Chick fil A this week are in In and Out or Starbucks or your fast food chain of choice, if you have the means to do it why don't you pay for the car behind you and their meal and then tell the cashier Lady, double witness moment, tell them Cornerstone loves them and God loves them. And that's who got their meal. So you get to share with that person and that person then gets to share with the car. Now some of us will go, "I don't know the means for that man, there's too much month left at the end of the money, I can't do that. I can't afford to pay, I can't afford to pay for a Chick fil A for myself let alone somebody else." Cool I want you to crowd your feet. Excuse me is that an Oklahoma redneck term? No it is not an Oklahoma redneck term. I am from Oklahoma but that's not what we say. Crowd your feet. I don't know what you do when you pull up Facebook but when I pull up Facebook I see Rodan Fields, Arbonne, Lipsense, come on you're selling a lipstick. You know, the never ending lipstick, have you guys seen that before? And no dudes don't raise your hand but ladies I'm sure you've seen it. It is, it's insane. Plexus, pour something in your drink and it's a miracle pill to lose all your weight, right? Everywhere we look there's all these people crowding our feet with all these network marketing things, right? And sometimes, listen if you sell that stuff more power to you. Just get off my feet.
Pastor Aaron: 31:25 So my wife and I were talking one night and she was like, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. What if, what if we crowded our social media feeds with invitations not to sell lipstick and not to be a part of Arbonne and not to be a part of Rodan Fields or that charcoal mask that you put on your face that's extremely painful to pull off. What if we invited people to church? What if we just crowded our feet? What if Cornerstone in our East Valley was so prevalent that literally every time you opened up your social media feed you weren't even sharing but everybody else so you follow was sharing. The reality is is about 6000 people on a weekend at Cornerstone will be at church. And if we asked you to share four... everybody can share four times a day, four times a day between now and Easter do you know how many invitations will go out? Do the math, over a half a million invites. Excuse me, what? Yeah that's free advertising.
Pastor Aaron: 32:15 And listen, it's why we are saying this because we believe that we've got the message that changes everything. If you had the cure for cancer why would you withhold that. Why would you go, "Dude, I'm saving this for myself." No way, you would give that to every person who is hurting. And listen, the message that Jesus is the light of the world isn't hurtful. It's helpful and we want to give you practical ways to say... like let's get out there and do that this week. And listen if even 1 percent of half a million showed up Sunday at all three of our locations ... building program. We don't have enough space to and guess what? If 1 percent of the people who showed up prayed to receive Christ the kingdom exploded in the East Valley and revival would break out. See maybe not everybody might not be able to buy somebody a cup of coffee or buy a meal for someone but anybody can post on social media and we can do this together as an army of people who bear the light. We can say come see the light.
Pastor Aaron: 33:18 This Easter at Cornerstone we believe that God's going to do some unbelievable things. And he's not necessarily going to do it through me or do it through a sermon or do it through music he's going to do it to you. Jesus said, "I'm the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will not walk in darkness." You're forgiven, you're set free. Change forever and you'll have the light of life. The light that points the way that takes you where you need you to go. This is the message all of us need to be reminded of, and everyone needs to hear that everyone needs the one, the light of the world.
Pastor Aaron: 34:03 Let's pray. Father we come to you this morning and we recognize that you're doing a great work in our church. All across our campuses every, every campus, every venue, every moment that we have you're doing great stuff. And what we want to do in this moment now Father is that we want to reignite our passion. We want to reignite our soul, to be fired up, that we've been changed. And we haven't been changed just to be changed. That's awesome that now we're forgiven of our sins and your grace met us at our most guilty moment and changed us. But in this moment what we ask is that we'll be fired up to communicate the fact that that message is available for everyone. Still praying today, every eye closed, just let me, let me, let me tell you, some of you today came into this room and you might have been skeptical and you've been trying to figure out why you've been doing what you've been doing. And now you've learned that what I've been doing has been trying to fix that guilt and all of the good things you've done can't fix that. Only Christ can fix that. And today you heard that God loves you so much that he sent Jesus to meet you at your guilt and save you from that. And he is your help. And all you need today is say Jesus I'm nothing without you. Be my help, change my life. Do it. That's all it is, just believe that he he can change you. You've just been accepted into the family. Others of you just needed this reminder to surge your soul of God. Thank you for doing this for me. May we never forget what God's done to us so that we can tell others he can do the same for them. God, thank you for the receptive hearts today. Thank you for this moment. May we not just check out now that the sermon's over, may we reflect on what you're teaching us in this quiet moment. In Christ's name, amen.
Recorded in Chandler, Arizona.
Pastor Aaron: 00:55 Well I do see some familiar faces but for many of you I have no clue who you are and you probably have no clue who I am. My name is Aaron Swensen I'm the campus pastor at our Scottsdale campus and today I get to share with you week two of our series Everyone and I'm pretty pumped about it. And so hopefully you've got your bibles, open your bibles to John Chapter 8. I feel like your're multi-taskers, Cornerstone's is good at that. So while you're doing that you can listen. Man, we launched our campus two weeks ago and I met this guy in the back of our auditorium and he said I've lived in the neighborhood for 54 years and I've never seen in 54 years that kind of activity at this campus that I've seen in the last couple of weeks. And we were pretty pumped about that. And if that's any indication of what we've had over the last couple of weeks we're about to blow the roof off of this joint so it's going to be legit.
Pastor Aaron: 01:44 We say this to you because we're family and we're all in it together. And whether you've ever been to Scottsdale or not, man, you're still a part of it and we're us, this is us. Not the TV show but actually this is us and this is us in San Tan, Larry we're so thrilled you're joining us 5 p.m. the venue Scottsdale, man, we're pumped that you guys are joining us this morning in our series.
Pastor Aaron: 02:05 So is anybody afraid of the darkness, by show of hands, anybody? Three of us, this is not going to work if it's only three of us. I don't know about you. I was afraid of the dark as a kid. Raise your hand, you afraid of the dark as a kid? Oh there we go. Don't leave me up here by myself. That's great. So I was afraid of the dark as a kid, man. And most kids are, most. As an adult honest to goodness I'm kind of afraid of the dark a little bit. In our house we've got four kids and they range from 10 to about 2 years old and without fail every night, "Turn the hall light on dad just a little bit, crack the bathroom door, turn the light on," all the time. And the reason they do that is because isn't it interesting that a little bit of light in a dark room goes a long way. Wouldn't you agree? But man they're afraid of the dark. I'm even sometimes afraid of the dark too. I remember as a kid my Mom closed the closet door, right? Did anybody have that thing? Why? Because the bogeyman lurks in the closet door and in the darkness weird things happen. Even that thing where you don't want to... there's an invisible barrier on your bed. Right? And if that hand creeps over and hangs or your foot hangs what are you afraid of? Man, you're getting sucked under the bed. Right? As a boy I'd play outside. What!? People like in the 80s and 90s played outside. I know it's crazy but I played outside and I'd hang out at a friend's house down the road. And it was getting dark and my mom would call or my dad would call on a landline phone. I know it's crazy. And they would call and say it's time for Aaron to come home. And so I would walk down the driveway, and my house is about 10 houses down and I start kind of walking and then as I get past the first light I start walking a little bit faster. And then I start looking over my shoulder and just all out sprint home because I was afraid that the little Chucky doll was chasing me or Jason or the Scream mask you know like Freddy Krueger because the darkness is freaky.
Pastor Aaron: 04:00 Wouldn't you agree? Yes. The darkness is freaky. And the reality is, is that a little bit of light in a dark space goes a long way and it changes everything. You and I live in a pretty dark world. You, all you've got to do is open your phone and look on your social media feed, all you've got to do is turn the news on, read a headline if you still do that -- people still read headlines. You watch TV and you'll see that, man, we live in a dark place and the reality is is that a little bit of light in a dark place goes a long way.
Pastor Aaron: 04:37 Today we are studying the story of Jesus in John Chapter 8 where he says a profound statement. He, like, says a statement, drops the mike and walks away. He says, "I am the light of the world and anyone who follows after me will no longer walk in darkness but will have the light of life." Jesus is essentially saying that in a dark, dark space, in a dark moment I'm the light that guides the way. And if you follow after me, the one that changes everything, it will change everything for you. And it just so happens that you now, if you believe in the light, you will receive the light and you will now have the light to shine in a dark, dark, dark world. The truth that we all need to embrace today is that everyone needs the one that is the light of the world. Everyone that you know that's got a heart beat in their chest and breath in their lungs. Every person that you look eyeball to eyeball with every day whether at Starbucks or at Golden Corral or anywhere else, they all if they've never experienced Jesus, they need the light of life in their hearts because when they meet Christ he fills every vacancy, answers every question and changes everything to their life. So when Jesus says, "I'm the light of the world," it kind of pumps the brakes on the entire story when you know the story. It gives you so much more meaning, so much more fulfillment in the story.
Pastor Aaron: 06:12 So what I want us to do is walk through John Chapter 8 beginning in verse 2 and the first thing, if you like to take notes... it's good for you to take notes because God's watching you so you should write this down. The first thing is is that the law reveals our guilt, the law reveals our guilt. That will make sense once we read the scriptures in verse 2 of John Chapter 8 Are you ready? OK I heard Scottsdale over that, and you're in the room so let's do this again. Are we ready? There we go. Good job. Too early in the morning.
Pastor Aaron: 06:44 He came to them (He is Jesus) again in the temple and all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them, he was teaching. Verse 3 describes that the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, "Teacher this woman has been caught in adultery." So these scribes and these Pharisees and these religious leaders were creeping in on this lady and caught her having an affair with this man and they take it upon themselves to bust into the room and kidnap her off of that moment, not giving her time to fix up herself, not giving her time to cover up and drag her into church and then throw her not in the lobby but in the worship center in the middle of when Jesus is teaching and says to Jesus, "Look who we found, look what happened. It's obvious what she was doing, isn't she guilty? What do you want to do about it? The law tells us that she's guilty. What do you want to do?" Talk about one of the darkest moments of her life. Talk about shame, talk about guilt, talk about vulnerability to the Nth Degree. Verse 5 goes on to say that now in the law, circle that phrase, in the law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do you say?
Pastor Aaron: 08:13 So adultery was a pretty big deal in their world and they said listen this isn't going to cut it, that she's not going to get off scott free. Our law says she's guilty, by the way it takes two to tango if you didn't know that so where's the dude in the story? We have no idea. So this woman is guilty. What are you want to do with her Jesus? Let stone her. Not recreationally but physically, depends on where you're from what that means right? Like if you're in Colorado. Just kidding. So look at verse 6. Why did they say this to him? Many scholars believe that these Scribes and Pharisees contrived this moment. They went out and found a dude and said hey we need you to do this. They didn't tell the girl and so all this stuff starts happening. They're conniving and planning and doing all these things to catch Jesus. What was he doing? Look at verse 6: This they said to him to what. To test him that they might have some charge to bring against Jesus. They wanted to get Jesus in a mess. What are you going to do Jesus, what are you going to do with this lady? You really had two options right. One, he agrees let's kill her. The problem with that is that he'd lose all of his street cred with his mission to seek and to save the lost, to heal the sick, to mend broken hearts, to save sinners from their sin. Right? So if he says let's do this, then all of the message of compassion to reach the lost and broken people the world, all those broken people would go, "I ain't following, ain't happening."
Pastor Aaron: 09:50 The other option would be she walks scott free. Well on that side of the coin you also have a problem because then this guy is theologically waffley. He messes up. What does he believe, does he not follow Moses, does he not follow the Ten Commandments? Obviously there's a problem. He says he's a prophet but obviously he doesn't follow the the word of God so he's weak in what he is teaching. There's no way this guy could do this and in a moment they just back him into a corner and let me just say if you're here today and you're struggling with Jesus. Like he ain't afraid to be backed into a corner, OK? You can ask him questions, you can even push him a little bit. And that's what these religious leaders did. But the moment you begin to put Jesus into a corner he begins to expose your heart and he's not doing that because he's mad at you, he's doing that because he wants to save you.
Pastor Aaron: 10:38 And I want you to look at your neighbor and say we're guilty. Look at him and say, "You're guilty," say it, come on. Look at the person on the other side who you love more because you didn't say that first to them and tell them you're not as guilty as the other person. See the reality is is we're all guilty and whether you sit in the seat of the religious leaders contriving a plan to put Jesus in a corner or sit in the seat of this woman messed up in her sin or anything in between, we're guilty. Now we don't like to say that, I mean we don't like to say that like that's not a popular message to a church. Nobody's getting a book deal for calling people sinners and calling people guilty. But the reality is is we all are, that's what we try to fix all the wrong that we do in our lives. That's why we try to get the bigger job, the bigger house, the big money because we feel like that'll fix that vacancy in our heart and if I have more mone I can, I can buy my way out of this. If I've got a new woman it'll get my way out of that vacancy in my heart that I'm trying to fill with woman after woman after woman, man after man after man after man, and no woman or no man or no job or no new home or no new truck or no new car will ever fix the problem in your life. Because the problem is that you're guilty and that stuff doesn't fix your guilt and it doesn't fix my guilt. We have a hard time seeing that though don't we?
Pastor Aaron: 11:56 So in order for us to understand that we're all on a level playing field whether you believe today or not this kind of levels the playing field for all of us and I need you to participate at all of our locations, if you don't raise your hands. This will be a problem, so we all got to work together. Alight, are you with me?
Pastor Aaron: 12:11 All right here we go. So here's what we're going to do. How many of you have ever... You didn't mean to do it but you just let slip just a little, little, little white lie -- like you told a half truth? Yeah right. Okay. Look around. All right everybody look around. Look around and all the campuses look around. Keep them up. For those of you that aren't raising your hands, you're a liar. I've never seen a room full of so many liars in my life. Yeah right. You can put him down. How many of you would say, honest moment in church, we're all on a level playing field here. You went to Zoyo or your favorite frozen yogurt place and you saw that sample bowl and you took 35 little sample cups and took a little more than you should have? Anybody been there? Okay a few of us. How many of you have a Cornerstone pen in your car, in your purse ladies. You're a thief. We want you to take those but I'm just playing.
Pastor Aaron: 13:06 Now this next one nobody wants to answer but you gotta go laser fast so nobody sees you. It's the laser hand race. I mean that's what it is all right? Maybe you lingered a little longer than you should have looking at somebody that's not your spouse. Laser hands everywhere. What are you saying Aaron? Because what I hear you saying is that I'm a liar and a thief. And if I even look at a woman lustfully that I've committed adultery in my heart. You're saying I'm an adulterer? Yes welcome to Cornerstone. We're glad that you're here. Well why am I saying this? Listen until we see ourselves as sinners we'll never see our need for a savior. We are sinners in desperate need of saving and the reality is is we know the one who fixes the guilt and we know the one who fixes the shame and we know the one who can take away the sin of the world and deposit the light of life inside of every single one of us. He's the light of the world that changes everything. And I need to hear that, you need to hear that. Listen, listen, listen your family needs to hear this. Your neighbors need to hear this. Everybody in our sphere of influence ought to be tripping over the message that you need the light of Christ in your life. Charles Spurgeon said once that the people in our sphere of influence, the people in our cities, it ought to be impossible for them to die and spend eternity separated from God because of our efforts and our groaning and our urging to reach them so that they might be saved. This is the point is that everyone in this world is guilty and they are sinners, and you and me included, in need of a savior.
Pastor Aaron: 15:03 But there is an unbelievable moment in transition of this story. The guilt doesn't stop there. The guilt can be remedied. The sin can be fixed. There is great hope found in this Jesus. Second thought is that the the law might reveal our guilt but the love reveals God's grace, the love reveals God's grace. Do you know what grace is? Grace is the you get what you don't deserve. It's what we say in Bible world, the unmerited favor, unmerited mean you don't deserve it but yet you get it. It's like Christmas, gifts are grace. You don't deserve it but you get it.
Pastor Aaron: 15:47 Reminds me of a story of my first daughter Sydney. She's 10 years old now. This was some years ago and she had this moment where we didn't know what was going on behind the scenes but after we found out crazy things started to happen. What are you talking about? Well we noticed insanely fast in our pantry that our peanut butter was disappearing at epic proportions. We buy the Skippy natural, gigantic one right? Spoonfuls. It's more like, I mean, I mean, just gone. And we started having to buy this over and over and over again right? Well my wife and I were talking, "What in the world is going on with the peanut butter?" And we don't know what's happening. Well a couple of weeks go by, truth be told. And for some reason we moved a couple of things in our pantry and behind the pantry in these areas -- boxes, cereal, rice. I mean who does bags of rice anymore? We use Minute Rice. But behind all that stuff there were a trail of used spoon, spoon, spoon, spoon, spoons. Seventeen million of them. I mean just good night Gus. It was everywhere. So then we start asking around and lo and behold it's my oldest, Sidney. And we said, "What is all this?"
Pastor Aaron: 17:13 "Well in the middle of the night I get hungry daddy and I just..." I'm malnourishing my kid! I'm starting to cry, she's crying, I'm crying. What's going on? We need to fix this and she's feeling now guilty because we caught her in the act of stealing. She was so overwhelmed with oh my gosh my mommy and daddy aren't going to love me anymore because I stole all the peanut butter. And I looked at her and I said, "No, no, no, no, no, your daddy's got this. I can just go buy more peanut butter."
Pastor Aaron: 17:39 Did she deserved to be... we didn't punish the kid because of that. No, we just sent her on her way and let her go play with her my little pony toys in her bedroom because we were the guilty party of malnourishing our children. But in that moment she didn't deserve the, "You should have, you should have. Why did you, why didn't you come to get me...". No, no, no, I just said, "Listen baby daddy will take care of it." And the reality is is that I exhibited grace to her. Which is what our Heavenly Father does to us is he gives us grace. He gives us the moment of it's going to be OK. Your daddy's got this. He's got it under control. Your sin doesn't overwhelm him. Your guilt doesn't overwhelm him. It doesn't matter how crazy it is. It doesn't surprise him and he accepts you at that moment.
Pastor Aaron: 18:23 So what do you think Jesus is going to do to this lady? There she is in all of her nakedness and all of her vulnerability. Religious leaders going, "Throw it at her!" And he's going... What is he going to do, what's he going to do? Look at the next verse, verse seven. Look at what Jesus does. The Bible says in verse 6 they set this as a test and that they might have some charge against him, and then Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. Every dude in their right mind would bow up right? Like I'm going to take care of this, hog tie 'em and take 'em out back and beat the snot out of 'em because they didn't... They shouldn't have done this to this lady. Jesus doesn't act like you and like me, thank God. He bends down and he stoops down in a humble position and he does something. Well what in the world does he do? He wrote with his finger. Jesus, this is not a time to outline your latest book deal. This is not a time to journal. This is a time to do something. What are you doing? It's amazing what he does. Many scholars believe that he started calling out the sins of those men that brought this woman to him: Frank, you've got a real issue with your anger. Bill, you like to look at other women that aren't your wife. Dylan, you skim off the top at your job and take things that aren't yours. That's insane. The offender, he's calling them out. And why do we believe that he did that? Well number one later manuscripts tell us that he did, that number two comes down to words, the Greek word for write or wrote is two words it's graphin which just means to write and then katagrafin which is this word here. It means to write down the offense against someone. The third reason why we think he did it is because it would be awesome if he did that. Writingiding down the offences of these people. And in that moment he didn't look down at her ... and it was she guilty? Question, was she guilty? Yes she was guilty. Did she sin. Yes she sinned. But he didn't even go to that yet. He was exposing this other groups hearts.
Pastor Aaron: 20:35 So verse seven comes. And as they continued to ask him... so they just kept pressing, pressing and pressing, he stood up against them. And said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." All right boys. If you're perfect pick up a rock and start throwing, if you're perfect pick up a rock and start throwing. Look at verse 8. The reality is is nobody could pick up a rock, right? They just looked in the dirt and saw what Jesus wrote and it was like, "I ain't throwin', there ain't no way that's happenin'." In verse eight and more, then once more he bent down to write on the ground, yet again writing more. But when they had heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones. Who finds that fascinating? The older ones right? Why did they do that? They've lived longer, they'd sinned more. There's no reason that they're going to stick around and go, "I'm not dumb, I'm leaving, I'm leaving. If he's writing down what everybody's done nobody needs to know my dirty laundry, who's with me on that one?" Right? That's where these people are. The young guys, the young bucks are like I'm sticking around. You're a moron for sticking around. So he moves on.
Pastor Aaron: 21:46 But when they heard it they went away one by one beginning with the older ones and as Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Can you imagine that moment? All of those accusers off running away. One by one and there she is in the darkness of her darkest moment feeling the guilt, feeling the shame, feeling insecure, feeling completely vulnerable before this man who was Jesus by herself. This would have been the moment where all of a sudden he just goes, "All right. Now here's this..." And he starts pointing fingers. But notice that Jesus' grace meets her at her guilt. The grace of God meets you and me at the deepest spot of our guilt and changes us. Look at what he says to her next. This is powerful, he says in verse 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?" Talk about the love of the Father coming to her. In two questions. Where are they at Ma'am? Where are they at? Where are the accusers, where are the ones that are saying, 'You were this. Now you will always be this.' Where are they at?" To which she would say they are not here.
Pastor Aaron: 23:08 And some of us today need to hear the same message from the light of the world Jesus Christ that no matter what you have done, no matter what sin you have committed, some of us feel like I can't come in a church. You've got friends that we know that haven't been in church in a long time or never been in church and they're like, "Listen, if I come to your church the ceiling will fall in on me before I even walk in the building. It's going to be massive destruction." And the reality is is that God is not scared by what we have done in our lives. God is not looking at you and going, "Ah, man." No, God is looking at you and saying, "Oh man, would you come on." And the reality is is you could run like the religious leaders did when met with the grace of God or you can stand there in his presence and absorb that grace and realize that when you meet Christ, yes you are a sinner, but you're in need of a savior and you're standing before him today and you were once dead but now you can be found alive. You were once a slave to sin but now you're free in Christ. You were once living in condemnation but now you are set free by the sinless son of God. You are now blessed. You have been changed. You are now... You have been ransomed and you have been set free by the power of the resurrected Christ. And when that comes into you you absorb that grace and it changes everything for you.
Pastor Aaron: 24:25 Do you know what the antidote to our guilt is? God's grace and the antidote for our guilt, listen, the grossest sin you could ever commit. God's grace overshadows it. And I don't know about you but I know people who need this.
Pastor Aaron: 24:45 I've been talking with a distant cousin of mine over Facebook and yesterday we start talking and he starts telling me all these things that have happened in his life. He was mad at me at first and then we start turning the conversation and I'm like, "Dude, I only know one way to tell you this. I couldn't make it through my life if it wasn't for my relationship with Jesus Christ. He's literally changed everything for me, for my family. At this point for my two daughters who have received Jesus. Listen, He's what you need. He's every answer, he's every question, every answer, every solution. Everything that you could ever be feeling in this moment. He is the release to your tension. You need a relationship with Christ. You need to meet the light of the world that shines so bright that it overshadows all of your guilt.
Pastor Aaron: 25:40 Do you know people that need this? Reality is is that every person we come into contact with if they haven't received it they need it. What does the law do? It reveals our guilt. What does the light do though? It reveals the overwhelming grace of God. Or the love reveals the overwhelming grace of God. And then finally the light reveals our hope. I've already told you that the light in a dark room, in a dark space changes everything.
Pastor Aaron: 26:16 Yesterday Joy was working up at her school, she works at Legacy North Chandler and she was doing some stuff getting lesson plans ready for the week and all this stuff and she was making copies in the workroom. And then all of a sudden the lights start to flicker. And then all of a sudden the lights just go out and she's navigating through the walls trying to figure out where she's going. And it's a new building so she doesn't know all the nooks and crannies and she's telling me, "Dude and I'm telling you right now. I was nervous because I didn't know if some boogeyman was lurking around the corner and kind of just come out and scare me and come into the back out of the bathroom. I didn't know what was going to happen." And it wasn't until she got to her room where the light was on that she went, "Ahhhh." That's a light does, it brings hope. Light brings hope to the darkest of moments when Jesus says in verse 12 that I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Jesus is making an unbelievable claim in an unbelievable moment. The reality is, the context of the moment is the Feast of Tabernacles. Well, what is that? Well you can go look it up on your own time, we don't have time to talk about it.
Pastor Aaron: 27:23 But the Feast of the Tabernacles is a moment of celebration for the Hebrew people where they are celebrating that pillar of fire that guided the nation of Israel through the wilderness for 40 years. And so what they would do in the temple is they had these gigantic light posts like we have in our day, little light posts walking down the road, they had these lights and then the tops would be filled with oil like a basin and then the wick of the candle was the priests, the pastors, it was their old robes and they would light those robes and it would light up the entire city and they would celebrate the provision of God, that God lighted the way in the wilderness and pointed the people where he wanted them to go for the whole time. That's what God did and so they were celebrating that in the Feast of the Tabernacles, and when Jesus was standing in the temple in John Chapter 8 in verse 12 he said, "You thought that light was great. Let me tell you about the true light, the light of the world and you're looking at him right now. I am the one who will provide the way, I am the one who will point the way. I'm the one who will guide you. I'm the one who will protect you. I am the one who will show you every which way that you want to go. This is a personal thing. This isn't just the light, the cloud. This is a personal relationship with me. I am the light of your world and if you want to follow me guess what happens? You no longer walk in darkness but you will have the light of life inside of you."
Pastor Aaron: 28:44 The Feast of the Tabernacles in Israel what would happen is Jerusalem is a dark city, like physically at nighttime there were no street lights so the light would be golden over all the city at night shining so that everyone could see a little bit of light in a dark space goes a long way. That's what happens when you shine your light, you shine your light, and you shine your light if you've received the light of Christ and you shine that bright wherever you go. What happens is it's unmistakable that the light of life is inside of you, that you now have met the one that changes everything and as you shine that light so bright you give God an opportunity to use you to introduce people to the real light, Jesus Christ. Last week Pastor Linn challenged us all with the Cornerstone window decal.
Pastor Aaron: 29:36 We all remember that? No? All right we'll move on. So if you didn't get one there are some as you leave today here the Chandler campus and I'm sure the other spaces you got the info booth and get one. But he said, "Hey listen, let's just do that so that people can be exposed to even Cornerstone because we know that Cornerstone we preach Jesus and so even if they walk in the door they have an opportunity to experience Jesus, set a whole new level. And hopefully you've done that. But we want you to take it a step further. When you're in line at Chick fil A this week are in In and Out or Starbucks or your fast food chain of choice, if you have the means to do it why don't you pay for the car behind you and their meal and then tell the cashier Lady, double witness moment, tell them Cornerstone loves them and God loves them. And that's who got their meal. So you get to share with that person and that person then gets to share with the car. Now some of us will go, "I don't know the means for that man, there's too much month left at the end of the money, I can't do that. I can't afford to pay, I can't afford to pay for a Chick fil A for myself let alone somebody else." Cool I want you to crowd your feet. Excuse me is that an Oklahoma redneck term? No it is not an Oklahoma redneck term. I am from Oklahoma but that's not what we say. Crowd your feet. I don't know what you do when you pull up Facebook but when I pull up Facebook I see Rodan Fields, Arbonne, Lipsense, come on you're selling a lipstick. You know, the never ending lipstick, have you guys seen that before? And no dudes don't raise your hand but ladies I'm sure you've seen it. It is, it's insane. Plexus, pour something in your drink and it's a miracle pill to lose all your weight, right? Everywhere we look there's all these people crowding our feet with all these network marketing things, right? And sometimes, listen if you sell that stuff more power to you. Just get off my feet.
Pastor Aaron: 31:25 So my wife and I were talking one night and she was like, "Wait a minute, wait a minute. What if, what if we crowded our social media feeds with invitations not to sell lipstick and not to be a part of Arbonne and not to be a part of Rodan Fields or that charcoal mask that you put on your face that's extremely painful to pull off. What if we invited people to church? What if we just crowded our feet? What if Cornerstone in our East Valley was so prevalent that literally every time you opened up your social media feed you weren't even sharing but everybody else so you follow was sharing. The reality is is about 6000 people on a weekend at Cornerstone will be at church. And if we asked you to share four... everybody can share four times a day, four times a day between now and Easter do you know how many invitations will go out? Do the math, over a half a million invites. Excuse me, what? Yeah that's free advertising.
Pastor Aaron: 32:15 And listen, it's why we are saying this because we believe that we've got the message that changes everything. If you had the cure for cancer why would you withhold that. Why would you go, "Dude, I'm saving this for myself." No way, you would give that to every person who is hurting. And listen, the message that Jesus is the light of the world isn't hurtful. It's helpful and we want to give you practical ways to say... like let's get out there and do that this week. And listen if even 1 percent of half a million showed up Sunday at all three of our locations ... building program. We don't have enough space to and guess what? If 1 percent of the people who showed up prayed to receive Christ the kingdom exploded in the East Valley and revival would break out. See maybe not everybody might not be able to buy somebody a cup of coffee or buy a meal for someone but anybody can post on social media and we can do this together as an army of people who bear the light. We can say come see the light.
Pastor Aaron: 33:18 This Easter at Cornerstone we believe that God's going to do some unbelievable things. And he's not necessarily going to do it through me or do it through a sermon or do it through music he's going to do it to you. Jesus said, "I'm the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will not walk in darkness." You're forgiven, you're set free. Change forever and you'll have the light of life. The light that points the way that takes you where you need you to go. This is the message all of us need to be reminded of, and everyone needs to hear that everyone needs the one, the light of the world.
Pastor Aaron: 34:03 Let's pray. Father we come to you this morning and we recognize that you're doing a great work in our church. All across our campuses every, every campus, every venue, every moment that we have you're doing great stuff. And what we want to do in this moment now Father is that we want to reignite our passion. We want to reignite our soul, to be fired up, that we've been changed. And we haven't been changed just to be changed. That's awesome that now we're forgiven of our sins and your grace met us at our most guilty moment and changed us. But in this moment what we ask is that we'll be fired up to communicate the fact that that message is available for everyone. Still praying today, every eye closed, just let me, let me, let me tell you, some of you today came into this room and you might have been skeptical and you've been trying to figure out why you've been doing what you've been doing. And now you've learned that what I've been doing has been trying to fix that guilt and all of the good things you've done can't fix that. Only Christ can fix that. And today you heard that God loves you so much that he sent Jesus to meet you at your guilt and save you from that. And he is your help. And all you need today is say Jesus I'm nothing without you. Be my help, change my life. Do it. That's all it is, just believe that he he can change you. You've just been accepted into the family. Others of you just needed this reminder to surge your soul of God. Thank you for doing this for me. May we never forget what God's done to us so that we can tell others he can do the same for them. God, thank you for the receptive hearts today. Thank you for this moment. May we not just check out now that the sermon's over, may we reflect on what you're teaching us in this quiet moment. In Christ's name, amen.
Recorded in Chandler, Arizona.
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